BIG FIRE AT NAPIER.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2773, 11 February 1882, Page 2

BIG FIRE AT NAPIER.

' £15,000 WORTH OF PROPERTY DESTROYED. (Pee Peess Association.) Napier, Feb. 10. The most disastrous fire that has taken place here for years past occurred ■tbiseyening just afterS o’clock. It broke out in the buildings occupied by Mr Fair, draper, who bought the. stock of Messrs Price and Innes about a month ago. It is conjectured that an explosion of gas was the cause, as the fire seemed to burst out simultaneously in all parts of the shop, and spread with unexampled rapidity. Id about 20 minutes £15,000 worth of property was destroyed. The Fire Brigade had just been out practising, and had put; their steam engine into the shed and let the fire out, and this caused a delay, as the fire had to be built, the boiler filled, and steam got up. In the meantime the hand and hose supplied from a high pressure, seemed to have no effect. The offices of Cornford, solicitor, and Carnell, photographer, next went, but though the contents were saved they were much damaged in removal. Large and Towley’s large furniture establishment next caught, and a small building at the side was gutted, all the carpets and oilcloth being destroyed. Most of the furniture was removed, and the Brigades, ~by,- almost .superhuman exertions, ; saved the tiflaih' building. Part of Peddie’s old hotel was burned, but the new building now going up was saved. : , ■,*?,

The following are the losses by the fire as nearly as can be estimated Fair’s stock, at wholesale value, £5500.' When he bought it it was put down at nearly £7OOO, but he gave only eleven shillings in the pound for it, viz., £3600. Cornford’s loss is slight. Carnell puts the damage to his plant at from £3OO to £4OO, chiefly from removal. Blackwell’s loss is £l5O, not’ insured. Peddie, of the Clarendon Hotel loses about £2OO from fire and damage. ' The contractors for the new hotel lose about £I6OO. Large and Townley’s loss is about £7OO to £BOO, of which nearly £6OO is from fire, the rest from damage. Another hundred will cover the slight damage to other buildings. The correct insurances arc:—Royal, Union, Scottish, and Imperial, £IOOO each on the buildings destroyed, which belonged to the Eev. J, Campbell; Victoria and National, £SOO each. On Fair’s stock, in the New Zealand, £200; oh the buildings, £IOO. Cornford’s books and furniture were covered in the South British for £2OO. Large and' Townley, in the Union £3OO, in the New Zealand, £2OO, in the South British £7OO, in the National £500; Peddie, in the Union for £OO.